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Manny Batshaw, the Montreal social worker who headed the 1975 inquiry into conditions in Quebec’s juvenile institutions that set the stage for Quebec’s youth protection legislation, then lent his name to the Batshaw Youth and Family Centres, died Monday. He was 101.

Batshaw’s special brand of leadership had always been the behind-the-scenes variety, Joel Yanofsky wrote in a biography of Batshaw titled Architect of a Community. “An unassuming, soft-spoken man, Manny learned at an early age there is no substitute for consensus.”

Manny Batshaw, founder of youth welfare services, dies at age 101Back to video

Manuel Gilman Batshaw was born in Montreal on April 17, 1915, late in his mother’s life. He was the youngest of four children in an immigrant Russian family. Raised in the shadow of his brilliant older brother, Harry, the first Jew appointed a Quebec Superior Court judge in 1950, Manny often felt that he was an unwanted child.

In spite of being dyslexic, he attended Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Queen’s University and the McGill School of Social Work, where he received a diploma in social work in 1938. He began his career at the Baron de Hirsch Institute on Bleury St. as a caseworker.

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Batshaw served as a captain in the Canadian army during the Second World War as director of social services for Quebec, where his job was to determine whether men were emotionally qualified to be sent to the front lines.

After the war, Batshaw left Montreal to work in Jewish community centres in Philadelphia, Hamilton, Ont., Atlanta, and for the National Jewish Welfare Board in New York. He returned to Montreal in 1968 as executive vice-president of the Allied Jewish Community Services, a post he held for 12 years.

In 1975, Batshaw was appointed to head a government inquiry into 60 correctional facilities for young people after a Gazette reporter went undercover as a child-care worker and exposed barbaric conditions at the Maison Notre-Dame-de-Laval detention centre.

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His 11-volume report recommended that youngsters with developmental problems should not be subjected to what he called a cannon approach to discipline, when all that was required was a pea-shooter approach.

He also recommended improved treatment and programs for youngsters and better trained child-care workers. In addition, he suggested that no child should spend more than six months in an institution without having his or her case re-evaluated.

Later, as an adviser to Charles Bronfman, Batshaw was credited with helping shape a philosophy of enlightened philanthropy and community sharing. Author Peter C. Newman dubbed him the Cardinal Richelieu or the man behind the throne of Bronfman’s Claridge Investments. Batshaw also helped organize early missions to Israel for Jewish teenagers.

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In 1992, four centres providing social services for the English-speaking community — Ville Marie Social Services Centre, Mount Saint Patrick Youth Centre, Youth Horizons and Shawbridge Youth Centres — were amalgamated under one board of directors and named Batshaw Youth and Family Centres.

“Family is the important word,” Batshaw said. “It means so much to me to have that in the name.”

Michael Goldbloom, who served as chairman of the board of directors of the Ville Marie Social Services Centre at the time, said naming the merged youth centres after Batshaw gave them credibility in the community.

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“We thought it would be appropriate to attach a name to it of someone who had played a significant role in terms of social policy in respect to youth. And we thought it was important to have a recognition that the English-speaking community had contributed not just to the economic development of Quebec, but to the social development of Quebec.

“For two decades and more, Batshaw became not just a person but an important institution for the English-speaking community of Montreal,” said Goldbloom, the principal of Bishop’s University in Lennoxville.

Judy Martin, past president of Batshaw Youth and Family Centres, praised Batshaw’s dedication to the welfare of troubled youth.

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“He felt the children deserved to be loved, and he felt they deserved to be listened to and respected. He did exactly that. He valued what they had to say,” Martin said.

“Manny’s vision of child welfare has inspired many of us and will continue to do so,” said Assunta Gallo, head of youth protection services for Batshaw centres. “We vow to carry on the vision of advocating for children and youth, in honour of Manny and his legacy.”

Although Batshaw retired in 1998, he continued to work as a consultant on Jewish and community affairs and as a consultant to the Mount Sinai Hospital.

He was awarded the Bronfman medal in 1984, named to the Ordre national du Québec in 1995 and invested as a member of the Order of Canada in 2004.

He outlived his two wives: Rachel Levitt, who died in 1990, and Ruth Schleien, who died in 2006. He is survived by his son, Mark.

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